Royal Gardens
by JustMe777
Summary: Hermione and Draco knew eachother when they were little, but something happened to end their friendship. This is the story of how both of them became friends again. HGDM
1. Hermione

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, never have, never will.

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Back when I was little, my favorite place to be was the old garden behind my house. I practically lived there. It was a magical place with a small tire swing and beautiful trees and flowers everywhere. Nobody could have ever called the place ugly, but there was more to this place than the scenery. There was a boy.

His name was Draco and I thought it was the funniest name I had ever heard. Then he asked me what _my_ name meant. He said that his name at least had a cool meaning. I told him I didn't know. He said I must be a total idiot _not_ to know and it probably meant something stupid. After a while of him saying this, I decided to ask my mom.

"Mom, Draco keeps on teasing me about my name!" I'd complain, "He says I'm stupid cause I don't know what it means, too!"

She smiled at me and said she didn't really know, but that there was a name book next to the computer that I could use to look it up.

I ran to the computer and grabbed it. I just knew that my name had a cooler meaning than Draco's. I mean, what was so special about having a name that meant "dragon"? I flipped through the pages ecstatically until I came to my name.

"Hermione;" the book read, "Of the earth."

Now I didn't know much about names, but I knew "daughter of the Earth" didn't even compare to "dragon". Draco would laugh at her when he heard. I couldn't tell him. For days all I did was hide my head under the covers. As soon as I went to the garden, Draco would tease me about my name.

My parents, at this time, got worried about my mental health; before they thought Draco was just an imaginary friend. They took me to a couple child psychologists and the psychologists all tried to tell me that Draco wasn't real. I knew he was real, though. Him not being real made no sense. I had played with him, talked with him, and fought with him. He wasn't like any other boy I had ever met. I had never been creative enough to come up with someone like him.

My poor parents were going crazy with worry. Not a single psychologist could get me to budge on my belief in him.

"Hermione," My father said to me one night during dinner, "Where did you meet this boy; Draco?"

"Oh, in the garden." I answered simply. I was way too hungry to give him a full answer. We were having my favorite food, mashed potatoes, and all I wanted to do was eat them.

"What garden?" My dad asked abruptly.

"The one in the forest behind my swing set." I told him, "Draco calls it the Royal Gardens, but I think he's lost it."

Mom and Dad exchanged looks. I was the only one who they thought had lost it.

"Hermione, can you show us the garden." My mom asked.

"But I haven't finished dinner yet." I said, "And if I don't finish it, JC will jump up on our table and eat it all up and then I won't get desert."

"How about after dinner?"

By the time we got outside it was dark. I almost got lost a couple times and when I got to the gardens nothing was the same. The plants were dead and branches had fallen off the trees. It looked like a graveyard.

"You've been coming here?" My mother asked worriedly.

I ignored her and walked to the old tire swing. It was nasty and faded now.

"Hermione, how often did you come here?"

I turned around slowly. Where was Draco? He wouldn't allow this to happen to his gardens.

"Hermione, are you okay?"

I didn't answer. I just stared at my shoes. The psychologists were right; Draco was never real.

"Hermione?"

I was staring at my shoes intently when I noticed an old piece of parchment not too far away. It was from Draco. It said he couldn't come here anymore. That we had to stop being friends. He said something about it not being safe here. He asked me to watch over the garden and make sure it never died. Then I started crying. I couldn't watch the garden; it was already dead.

My parents looked at the note. They believed me after that. Mum even said she'd help me replant the garden. In a few months, the place looked almost as good as before, but it wasn't the same without Draco.

As I got older I spent less and less time at the garden. When I turned eleven I got a letter from a magic school called Hogwarts. After that, I didn't have much time for the garden anymore and, even if Draco did come back, I'd probably never see him again. Boy, was I wrong.


	2. Draco

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything of value. Don't sue.**

**Emily - I'm really glad you like it. Hope you like the next chapter, too.**

**Faerie Nuff - I'm really glad you like the idea. I tried to put more detail in this chapter. Hope you like the next chap. **

**animagus10 - Nope, it's not a oneshot. This chapters kind of like the last one except it shows everything from Draco's point of view, too. Hope you like it. **

**jalapeno1011 - I'm really glad you like it. Yeah, it would be really awful to be in Hermione's place in the story. Here's the next chap. **

**Lady Ghost Buster - I'm glad you liked the beginning. Here's the next chap. **

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When I was little I was even more of a troublemaker than I am now. I used to love to practice "negotiating" with the aurors outside our house and "helping" Dobby ruin the food in the kitchen. Dobby told me I was a "very bad boy" practically every day and then I'd watch him punish himself for it.

It's amazing how I lived in the manor my whole life and never saw our gardens until I was seven years old. It was only by chance I had found it, anyways. Winky had seen me sleeping under the maple tree and decided to leave me out there while she started to sew my mother a new blouse. I woke up and decided to see what was in our gardens.

In the beginning, I saw nothing of interest; a few garden elves here and there and some trees. Then I saw a little girl. She was about my age and had her hair braided into two long brown braids.

"Hi," She said happily, "Who are you?"

"Draco Malfoy." I said slowly.

She laughed, "Draco is a silly name."

I glared at her, "What's your name then?"

"Hermione." She said.

"Herminninninny?" I laughed, "That's a sillier name than mine."

"It's Hermione." She said, "But you can call me Mine instead. That's what all my friends call me." She paused for a second and then said, "Draco, do you want to play tag with me?"

"What's 'tag'?" I asked and with that, she had already started to explain the rules to me.

We played for hours and agreed we'd come there every day. It was great until she stopped coming.

I started to get worried and asked my mother if I had done anything to offend her.

"You were talking to a _muggle_?" She asked, "A _muggle_?"

"Mine's not a muggle!" I said. At the time, I didn't even know what a muggle was, but it sounded like a bad word and Mine was never bad.

My mother told me never to go to the garden ever again and never to talk to Mine. So I didn't talk to her. I wrote her a note and ordered Dobby to put it right next to our favorite swing.

My father found out and yelled and told me how fowl muggles are and I slowly began to forget about Mine. I never went to the garden again.


	3. Hermione and the Lost Toad

**Disclaimer: If you think I'm JKR, I'm flattered, but I'm not and I don't own anything.**

**Here's the next chapter everybody. I hope you like it. By the way, I probably won't post many chapters this week because I'm going to YEC with my church this week and I might be kind ofbusy. No guarantees, though, hope you like the next chap.**

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I wandered down the hallway on the Hogwarts Express. I hadn't imagined it this way. I didn't know anyone here at all. Most of the compartments were full. I didn't really know what to do. 

"Hello," I said nervously when I had found a compartment halfway empty. "I was wondering, would it be okay if I sit here with you? All the other compartments are full and –"

"We don't associate with _your_ type." One of them sneered. I looked at the boy; he was the boy from the garden; my friend, Draco. What had happened to him?

"My type?" I asked meekly.

"You know perfectly well what we mean." A girl sneered. "You don't belong here. Quit wasting our time."

"Fine." I said and then left the compartment. I sat down in the hallway and started to cry; the girl was right, I didn't belong here at all, and Draco…

"Are you okay?" A boy asked.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine." I pulled myself up and forced a smile. "My name's Hermione, by the way."

"My name's Neville." He smiled, "I'm not having a good first day, either."

"What happened?"

"Well, before I got on the train I lost my toad and couldn't find it for the longest time and then after that Lee Jordan let loose a huge, hairy spider on me and, well, I've lost my toad again. My gran won't be too happy."

"I could help you look." I said, "We could ask around the compartments." She looked at the cabin she had just stepped out of, "Except for that one. I didn't see any toads in there when I was there." _Not that I was really looking for one,_ I thought to myself.

Neville and I must've looked through about a hundred compartments, but we didn't find a thing. Both of us were about to give up, but then we decided Neville's toad, Trevor, was at least worth one more compartment.

"Has anyone seen a toad?" I asked, "Neville's lost one."

"We've already told him we haven't seen it." A boy with flaming red hair said. He had had his wand out before I had even walked in. It looked like he was about to do magic.

"Oh, are you doing magic?" I asked, "Let's see it then."

I was excited. I had tried a few spells, but I hadn't seen much magic at all. They all seemed so interesting. Personally, I couldn't wait for school to start.

"Er – alright," The boy said and then cleared his throat, "_Sunshine, daisies, buttermellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!"_

Nothing happened at all. There was a rather awkward silence until I asked, "Are you sure that's a real spell?" I paused; everyone was staring at me now. "Well, it's not a very good one is it? I tried a few simple spells for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course." The odd stares remained and I began talking faster. "I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft, I've heard. I've learn all our books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Who are you?"

"I'm Ron Weasley," The boy with red hair muttered.

"Harry Potter." The other boy said.

"Are you really?" I asked, "I know all about you, of course – I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts _and_ Great Wizarding Events in the 20th century_."

"Am I?" Harry asked.

_He didn't know?_

"Goodness, didn't you know?" I asked, "I'd have found out everything I could if it was me." Harry was looking confuse and Ron was looking as if I had lost it, so I decided to change the subject. "Do either of you know which house you'll be sorted in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best. I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Well, anyway, we'd better go look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

Neville and I left. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't beso bad after all.

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**So that's it. I hope you all liked it. Please review if you did. **

**Kaye Chan - Thanks, I'm really glad you like the story. Here's the next chapter.**

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**jalapeno1011 - The garden didn't exactly turn into a graveyard, it just seemed like it because everything had died. Without the Malfoys there weren't many people to take care of the garden anymore, I guess. Here's the next chapter.**

**Lady Ghost Buster - I tried to add some more length to this chapter, but it's not much longer, I added more description though. I hope you like it. Here's the next chap.**

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